Well, I decided to take delivery today because I just couldn’t wait. The dealer did a great job with the delivery experience. They gave me some tips on how to get private cash offers which I will share tomorrow because I am tired.
I will give my first impressions now and keep in mind, I have been driving a 2011 Explorer for 8 years, almost to the day.
It had 50 miles on it when it arrived, just like the other ST they got in a couple of days ago. They had to perform a seat belt recall before I could take delivery, but they knocked it out quickly.
As a reminder, I got a Magnetic ST with the street pack and tech pack. I am glad I got the bigger screen (and the massaging seats which are awesome) I know the larger screen looks awkward in many of the pictures, but it is fine and not in the way.
This vehicle is a substantial upgrade from the 2011. The sync 3 system is intuitive and responsive. The adaptive cruise control with stop and go is way better than the 2011 system. The lane centering is nice, but will take me a little while to trust, but you still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel anyway, but it does give you a nice grace period before it nags you.
The speed limit sign recognition was spot on, but I didn’t get a chance to try it in construction zones.
The feel of the steering wheel is great and the vehicle handles nicely. I feel like Ford did a good job balancing performance vs comfort on the ST suspension. I didn’t really peg the throttle and I was mostly driving around in normal mode and was a little underwhelmed at first, but I popped it into sport mode and used the paddle shifters and wow, you just couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.
Lots of little details that I will get into later that help make this a substantial upgrade.
It’s also very quiet, unless you are ripping through the gears in sport mode.
I love the digital dashboard display.
In the past, I have always bought black cars, and I reluctantly decided to go with magnetic. The black STs look nice, but the magnetic was definitely the right call for me. I have received multiple compliments already.
I will post more this weekend as I learn more.
I just want to thank many of the members on this forum for sharing their knowledge, I have learned a ton and will continue to monitor the forum.
Edit: I am looking at the pictures on my monitor and they just don't do the color justice, it looks way better in person (maybe I need a better monitor?)